The independent music industry is facing its biggest crisis in decades as it has emerged that the arson attack by looters on Sony's Enfield warehouse destroyed probably the entire stock of CDs and vinyl from more than 100 small labels.

New releases from the Arctic Monkeys and Charlie Simpson have been affected or delayed after all copies destined for the shops were destroyed.

XL Recordings, the company behind chart-topping Adele, is among those hit. But while it will be able to shift stock from Europe to cover the shortfall on her hit album 21, smaller niche labels fear for their very existence.

The sector has been hit so badly because Sony DADC stored and distributed the entire stock of indie marketing company Pias, which acts for more than 100 indie labels. There are even fears, not confirmed, that master tapes and hard drives have been destroyed, meaning recordings could be lost forever.

Martin Mills, chairman of Beggars Group, which owns labels including XL, said the impact on the industry was: "Horrible. Horrible."

Spencer Hickman, manager of the independent music retail chain Rough Trade, said: "It's catastrophic. Pias is the biggest independent distributer in the country and that warehouse had stock to supply every shop in the country. For the smaller niche labels, who knows what they could be faced with now?"

He added: "Now, everyone is conscious that we won't have enough stock."

Some retailers are considering collaborating to pool what stock they hold in order to fulfill customers' orders and maintain much-needed cashflow for the record companies.

Although the warehouse was insured, with no cash coming in, small labels may not be able to survive the wait for a claim.

Many of those that have survived the incursion from supermarkets and the internet on chart hits have come to rely on indie music, with limited print runs and collectors editions of CDs and vinyl being highly sought after.